IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


1.0 


I.I 


1.25 


i-  11^    IIIIM 
5"  ilM    1 2.2 

1.4  mil  1.6 


V] 


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V 


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Photographic 

Sciences 

Corporation 


23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  M580 

(716)  872-4503 


l^ 

4^ 

^'4 

& 

) 

C/j 


CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICIVIH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


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Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes/Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


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n/ 


Coloured  covers/ 
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I      I    Covers  damaged/ 


D 


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Couverture  restaur6e  et/ou  pelliculde 


□    Cover  title  missing/ 
Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

I      I    Coloured  maps/ 


D 
D 
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D 


D 


Cartes  g^ographiques  en  couleur 


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Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 


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Additional  comments:/ 
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D 
D 
D 
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n 

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D 
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ails 

du 

tdifier 

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shall  contain  the  symbol  — »>  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  V  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 


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dernidre  image  de  chaque  microfiche,  selon  le 
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method: 


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Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  dtre 
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et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  ndcessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrent  la  mdthode. 


rata 

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lelure, 


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6 

ADDRESS 


BT 


CHARLES  C.   ABBOTT, 


Vice  Fresiornt,  Section  H, 


BEFORE  THE 


AMERICAN  ASSOCIATION  rOR  THE  ADVANCEMENT  OF  SCIENCE. 


At  THE  Clkvki,and  Meeting, 


ACOUST,  1888. 


[From  the  PROOBEoiNas  of  the  American  abbooiation  for  the  advancement 

OF  SCIENCE,  Vol.  XXXVII.) 


PRINTED  AT  THE  SALEM  PRESS. 

SALEM,  MASS. 

1888. 


b  '^O 


EVIDENCES  OF  THE  ANTIQUITY  OF  MAN  IN  EASTEBN 
NOBTE  AMERICA. 


SECTION  OF  ANTHROPOLOGY, 


I 


t^mm^^mmm^^^^^^m 


.m, '  Jii'i'iyiii'ii  us.  "J"    i"JT"""i V    .vm 


[From  t 


rn\ 


EVIDENCES  OF  THE  ANTIQUITY  OF  MAN  IN  EASTERN 
NORTH  AMERICA. 


ADDRESS 


BT 


CHARLES   C.   ABBOTT, 


ViCK  Prksidknt,  Skction  II, 


BEFOKR  THE 


SECTION  OF  ANTHROPOLOGY, 


AMEIUCAN  ASSOCIATION  FOK  THE  ADVANCEMENT  OF  SCIENCE. 


At  thk  Clkvki.and  Mkkting, 


AU0IJ8T,  1H8  8. 


tFrom  the  Prockeuinos  opthk  Amkuican  AssocrATioM  vn\i  tiik  Aovancemknt 

or  SCIKNOE.  Vol.  XXXVIl.l 


PUINTED  AT  THE  SALEM  PKESS, 
SALEM,   MASS. 

1888. 


/ 


ADDllKSS 

11 Y 

DR.  CHARLES  C.  ABBOTT, 

VICE-PRESIDENT,  SECTION  II. 


EVIDENCES  OF  THE  ANTIQUITY  OF  MAN  IN  EASTERN 
NORTH  AMERICA. 


An  ecclesiastical  body  has  recently  decided,  by  a  significant 
vote,  that  man,  perfect  in  all  his  parts,  had  been  created  de  novo 
from  tiie  dust  —  that  tiie  law  of  evolution  lias  nothing  wiiatever  to 
do  witi\  him  or  his  ;  if,  indeed,  it  is  not  a  very  flimsy  figment  of  tlie 
imagination,  and  a  liarmfid  playtliing  with  which  men  wlio  aim  to 
be  scientific,  or  rational,  solace  themselves,  because,  in  their  fool- 
hardiness,  they  decline  to  accept  the  asserted  initial  separate  crea- 
tion of  all  living  beings,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  now  living 
or  that  have  lived. 

If  this  decision  of  an  eccilcsiastical  body  really  represented  the 
truth,  instead  of  being  a  painful  exhibition  of  stultifying  ignorance, 
Anthropology  would  be  shorn  of  nnicii  of  its  attractiveness,  and 
the  term  "  i»rehistoric "  would  have  little,  if  an}',  meaning.  In 
such  a  case,  the  races  of  America  would  scarcely  be  worthy  of  con- 
sideration, being  but  the  rapidl}'  degenerated  and  discolored  de- 
scendants of  the  physically  perfect,  yet  painfully  weak-kneed  Adam 
of  Paradise. 

There  is,  on  the  contrary,  unquestionably  but  one  method  of  cor- 
rectly interpreting  the  past,  as  to  the  history  of  man,  and  tliat  is 
to  adopt  the  same  methods  and  draw  the  same  inferences  as  have 
been  done  in  tracing  the  evolution  of  the  horse,  camel,  elephant  or 
ox.  This,  strangely  enough,  seems  repugnant  to  very  many  who 
feel  that  any  relationsiiip,  however  remote,  with  less  intelligent 
creatures  is  a  reflection  upon  tiieir  own  intelligence  ;  while,  in  fact, 

(3) 


i;l 


!t 


\\ 


n 


4  SECTION    H. 

tlipy  compromise  tlicir  claim  to  a  liip;ii  intellectual  standard  only 
when  tliey  deny  tlieir  purely  animal  origin. 

To  determine  at  wliat  precise  point  in  geological  time,  man  ap- 
peared upon  the  earth,  is,  it  seems  to  me,  obviously  impracticable, 
from  the  fact  that  the  dividing  line  separating  humanity  from  the 
non-human  cannot  be  drawn.  It  were  as  easy  to  name  the  mo- 
ment when  the  gloaming  merges  into  night,  or  shout  with  confi- 
dence, now  !  as  the  dawn  brightens  into  day.  Nor  is  it  demonstrable, 
with  our  present  knowledge,  to  point  to  that  country  where  tiic 
momentous  change  first  toolt  place,  if  it  occurred  but  once.  At 
present,  however,  we  can  safely  say  that  Miocene  man  is  extremely 
problematical,  and  Pliocene  man  a  question  as  yet  unsettled ;  the 
auriferous  gravels  of  California  being  pronounced  late  Tertiary  by 
Whitney,  and  by  LeConte  as  representing  "the  beginning  of  the 
Glacial  Epoch." 

At  all  events,  we  have  neolithic  man  as  far  back  as  the  Glacial 
Epoch  and  possibly  in  the  Pliocene.  Man  in  tiie  Tertiaries,  there- 
fore, championed  by  my  honored  predecessor.  Professor  Morse, 
becomes  something  more  tangible  than  a  hypothetical  creature. 
Professor  Putnam  has  pithily  outlined  this  important  subject  in  a 
recent  communication  to  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History. 
He  there  remarks  :  "  When  we  compare  the  facts  now  known  from 
the  eastern  side  of  the  continent,  willi  those  of  the  western  side, 
they  seem  to  force  upon  us  to  accept  a  far  longer  occupation  by 
man  of  the  western  coast  than  of  tiie  eastern  ;  for  not  only  on  the 
western  side  of  the  continent  have  his  remains  been  found  in  geo- 
logical beds  unquestionably  earlier  than  the  gravels  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, Ohio  and  Delaware  valleys,  but  he  had  at  that  early  time 
reached  a  degree  of  development  equal  to  that  of  ti'  i  inhabitants 
of  California  at  the  time  of  European  contact,  so  far  as  the  char- 
acter of  the  stone  mortars,  chipped  and  polished  stone  implements, 
and  shell  beads,  found  in  the  auriferous  gravels,  can  tell  the  story. 
On  the  Pacific  coast,  where  tlie  conditions  of  life  were  more  favor- 
able, he  had  passed  beyond  the  pahcolithic  stage  before  his  works 
were  buried  in  the  gravels  under  the  beds  of  lava ;  while  at  a  later 
period  on  the  Atlantic  coast  he  was  still  in  the  paljBolithic  stage. 
Either  this  must  be  accepted,  or  else  the  geological  changes  on 
the  Pacific  coast  have  been  entirely  misunderstood  ;  for  we  can  no 
longer  question  the  man}'  instances  of  the  discovery  of  the  works 
of  man,  and  also  of  his  bones,  in  the  Californian  gravels.     The 


or 


ks 
he 


ADDUK9S    BY    CIIAHLKS   C.    ABBOTT.  0 

same  8tory  is  told  by  the  heautifiilly  cliipped  imploiiiont  of  obsidian 
found  by  Mr.  JIcGeo  in  tlie  (juatcruary  d('i)()sil8  of  Lalvo  Lahonlan 
in  Nevada." 

Man  in  America,  tlierefore,  must  l)e  .studied  from  a  geoloj^ieai 
8tandi)oint ;  and  not  only,  as  we  have  seen,  is  tliis  true  of  the  Pa- 
cillc  coast,  but  signally  so,  when,  coming  eastward,  wo  reach  the 
Mississippi. 

Mr.  Warren  Ui)ham  has,  during  the  present  year,  published  in 
full,  a  lucid  account  of  his  carefid  examinations  of  the  drift  forma- 
tions at,  and  in  the  vicinity  of  Little  Falls,  Minnesota,  where,  in 
1879,  Miss  Babbitt  found  those  extremely  rude  but  unquestionably 
worked  quartzes,  concerning  whicii  there  has  been  much  needless 
comment,  unfavoralile  to  tiieir  human  origin  or  their  asserted  an- 
tiquity, even  from  presumal)ly  learned  sources ;  and  of  (!ourse, 
lame  attempts  to  belittle  the  discovery  by  those  who  siiould  know 
better  are  still  heard. 

The  conclusion  of  Mr.  Upham's  paper  is  as  follows  :  "  While  the 
deposition  of  the  valley-drift  at  Little  Falls  was  still  going  for- 
ward, men  resorted  there,  and  left,  as  the  remnants  of  their  man- 
ufacture of  stone  implements,  multitudes  of  quartz  fragments.  By 
the  continued  deposition  of  the  modified  drift,  lifting  the  river  up- 
on the  surface  of  its  glacial  flood-plain,  these  quart^  chips  were 
deeply  buried  in  that  formation.  Tiie  date  of  this  valley-drift  must 
be  that  of  the  retreat  of  the  ice  of  tlic  last  glacial  e[)och,  from  wiiose 
melting  were  supplied  both  this  sediment  and  tlic  Hoods  by  wiiicli 
it  was  brought.  The  glacial  flood-plain,  beneath  whose  surface 
the  quartz  fragments  occur,  was  deposited  in  the  same  manner  as 
additions  are  now  made  to  the  surface  of  the  bottom-land  ;  and  the 
flooded  condition  of  the  river,  by  wliich  this  was  done,  was  doubt- 
less maintained  through  all  the  warm  portion  of  the  year,  while  the 
ice-sheet  was  being  melted  away  upon  the  region  of  its  head-waters. 
But  in  spring,  autumn  and  winter,  or,  in  excei)tioual  years,  liuough 
much  of  the  summer,  it  seems  proi)al)le  lliat  the  river  was  confined 
to  a  channel,  being  of  insullicient  voluuie  to  cover  its  flood-plain. 
At  such  time  this  plain  was  the  site  of  human  habitations  and  in- 
dustry." 

In  1883,  as  the  result  of  exhaustive  studies  of  glacial  deposits, 
from  New  Jersey  westward,  across  Ohio,  Rev.  G.  Frederick  Wright 
predicted  that  traces  of  pahuolithic  man  would  be  found  in  the  lat- 
ter state.      Commenting  upon  sucii  evidences  as  occurring  else- 


y 


SECTION   n. 


where,  he  remarks  :  "  Man  was  on  tliia  continent  at  tliat  period  when 
the  cliniute  and  ice  of  Greenland  extended  to  tiie  moutli  of  Now 
York  lliirijor.  Tiie  proljiihilily  in  that  if  lie  was  in  New  Jersey  at 
tliat  time  he  was  also  upon  tlie  banks  of  tiie  Oiiio,  and  tlie  exten- 
sive terrace  and  gravel  d"posits  in  tlie  southern  part  of  our  state 
sliould  l)e  closely  scanned  by  archieologists.  When  observers  be- 
come familiar  with  the  rude  form  of  these  paheolithic  implements 
they  will  doulitless  find  them  in  abundance." 

ralieolithic  implements,  concerning  which  there  can  be  no  doubt, 
have  not  been  discovered  in  abundance  as  yet,  but  Professor 
Wriglit's  belief  proves  to  have  been  well  founded.  Dr.  C.  L. 
Metz  of  Madisonville,  Ohio,  has  discovered  two  specimens  which 
set  the  matter  at  rest.  Both  were  found  at  signilicant  depths  ; 
one  of  them,  nearly  thirty  feet  below  tiie  surface.  The  region, 
where  found,  is  opj  characterized  by  immense  gravel  deposits  of 
glacial  age  and  origin.  They  have  been  carefully  studied  and 
reported  upon  by  Prof.  Putnam  and  by  Mr.  Wright,  who  remarks, 
in  conclusion,  vvitli  reference  to  the  discoveries  of  Dr.  Metz: 

"In  the  liglit  of  tiie  exposition  just  given,  these  implements  will 
at  once  be  recognized  as  among  tlie  most  important  arcliajological 
discoveries  yet  made  in  America,  ranking  on  a  par  with  those  of 
Dr.  Abbott,  at  Trenton,  N.J.  They  show  that  in  Oliio,  as  well  as 
on  the  Atlantic  coast,  man  was  an  inhabitant  before  tlie  close  of  the 
glacial  period.  We  can  henceforth  speak  with  confidence  of  inter- 
ghiciai  man  in  Oliio.  It  is  facts  like  these  which  give  arciiieologi- 
cal  significance  to  the  present  fruitful  inquiries  concerning  the  date 
of  the  glacial  epoch  in  Nortli  \merica.  Wlien  the  age  of  the  mound- 
builders  of  Oliio  is  reckoned  l)y  centuries,  tliat  of  the  glacial  man 
who  chipped  these  paheolithic  implements  must  be  reckoned  by 
thousand:,  of  years." 

Mr.  Ililborne  T.  Cresson  will,  at  this  meeting,  present  notices  of 
his  discovery  of  two  chipped  implements  of  argillite  which  he  found 
in  situ,  at  a  depth  of  several  feet  from  the  surface,  in  railroad  cut- 
tings through  the  old  te4'race  of  the  Delaware  river  in  Claymont 
county,  Delaware.  The  geological  position  of  tliese  specimens  will 
excite  discussion,  but  their  great  age  will  not  be  questioned.  Of 
particular  interest  in  relation  to  discoveries  in  tlie  gravels  at  Tren- 
ton and  Ohio,  is  the  discovery  of  a  large  flint  implement  found  by 
Mr.  Cresson  in  tlie  glacial  gravel  in  Jackson  county,  Indiana.  An 
account  of  this  specimen  will  also  be  presented  to  this  section  dur- 


ADDUESS  BY  CHARLES  C.  AnnOTT, 


(J.1- 

iile 

iiul- 

nian 

by 

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cut- 
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will 
Of 
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An 
dur- 


ing the  meeting  by  Tiof.  Putnam  for  Mr.  Cresaon.  I  ain  permitted 
to  call  attention  in  advance  to  tiiesc  new  facts  in  tlio  distri'Mitiou 
of  [)alft;olitliic  inipienientH,  and  I  may  add  tliat  it  is  of  extreme  im- 
portance tiiat  these  rude  implements  from  New  Jei-Hcy,  Dchiware, 
Oiiio,  Indiana  and  Minnesota  arc  in  the  Peahody  Museum  at  Cam- 
bridge, where  they  can  be  freely  studied  and  compared  \yith  each 
other  and  with  the  specimens  from  the  gravels  of  tlie  old  world. 

Nor  are  these  instances  of  the  discovery  of  pnlieolithic  man,  in 
North  America,  all  that  are  upon  record  ;  but  are  tiicy  not  enough? 
Why,  indeed,  should  tiic  bare  mention  of  the  poor  fellow's  name 
still  excite  a  sneer?  Tiiere  will  probably  always  be  over-cautious 
folk  who  will  only  accept  cum  grano  Hctlis,  tlie  Man  of  tlie  Tertia- 
ries,  however  elocpiently  he  may  be  plead  for ;  but  no  one  willing 
to  accept  otlicr  testimony  than  his  or  iicr  own  eyes — often  tlie  most 
treacherous  of  guides — can  in  fairness  turn  their  baciis,  when  we 
speak  of  that  primitive  chipper  of  Uinty  rock,  who,  with  no  otiier 
weapon,  at  least,  held  at  bay,  the  savage  beasts  of  primeval  times  ; 
and  who,  with  a  cunning  that  is  ever  I)etter  than  mere  strength  of 
limb,  proved  a  powerful  foe  of  botli  the  mammoth  and  tiie  masto- 
don. Such  a  man  stands  out  in  the  geological  liistor}'  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  Ohio  valleys,  not  as  a  dim  shadow,  but  a  substantial 
fact. 

Was  he  conlincd  to  these  two  portions  of  the  country?  By  no 
means.  On  the  contrary,  it  would  appear  that  as  either  seaboard 
was  neared,  his  numbers  increased,  and  tiiat  as  a  coast-dweller  he 
preeminently  ilourished.  In  the  valley  of  tlie  Delaware  river  pa- 
Ireolithic  man  has  left  such  abundant  traces  of  his  former  presence, 
in  the  form  of  rudely-fashioned  stone  implements,  that  for  long 
they  were  considered  as  the  hasty  or  unlinished  work  of  the  later 
Indians. 

As  the  first  to  point  out  what  is  now  maintained  by  competent 
archa-'ologists  to  be  their  real  significance,  I  may  be  pardoned  for 
devoting  the  conclusion  of  my  address  to  a  consideration  of  that 
region — the  Delaware  valley — so  far  as  its  physical  character  and 
the  traces  of  prehistoric  man  found  there  have  a  bearing  on  the 
question  of  the  antiquity  of  Man  in  America. 

The  literature  of  the  subject  is  now  so  considerable — not  includ- 
ing the  inanities  of  the  ignorant — that  a  brief  resume  would  of  it- 
self outreach  reasonable  limits,  and  I  purpose  therefore  to  confine 
myself  more  particularly  to  the  results  of  my  own  work.     But  do 


8 


SECTION    H. 


not  suppose  tliat  otliers  have  not  carefully  gone  over  the  same 
ground.  Shalor,  Btlt,  Whitney,  Wright,  Pumpelly,  McGee,  Carvill 
Lewis  and  our  State  Geologist,  Cook,  as  geologists  are  practically 
one  in  their  view  that  the  gravel  deposits  are  so  far  ancient  as  to 
be  very  sigiiilicant  as  to  whatever  traces  ^i  man  or  other  mammals, 
they  may  contain  ;  while  Dawkins,  Tylor,  Putnam,  Morse,  Ilaynes, 
Wilson  and  De  Costa  have  all  been  more  or  less  successful  in  find- 
ing traces  of  palajolithic  man  in  this  river  valley,  and  admit  with- 
out qualitication,  his  former  presence. 

The  question  may  now  be  asked,  what  is  a  palreolithic  imple- 
ment? It  is  not  very  readily  delined  as  there  is  considerable  va- 
riation in  the  shape ;  but  as  I  understan<l  the  significance  of  the 
term,  it  is  properly  applied  to  coarsely  chipped  masses  of  flinty 
rock  upon  which  a  distinctly  designed  cutting  edge  is  formed,  to 
which  is  often  added  an  acute  point.  Fiu'thermore,  they  show  un- 
mistakable evidence  of  antiquity  by  the  weathering  of  their  sur- 
faces, and  they  are  found  as  a  rule,  but  not  necessarily  always,  in 
deposits  of  glacial  or  river  drift  with  which  they  agree  in  age. 

How  far  do  these  Trentonian  Implements  meet  with  these  re- 
quirements? As  thei.  discoverer,  I  prefer  to  give  the  opinions  of 
others,  rather  than  n)y  own.  Tiiis  is  what  Dr.  M.  E.  Wadsworth, 
the  lithoiro'ist  has  said  of  thoin  :  "Certain  of  these  specimens  were 
placed  in  my  hands  in  1876  for  examination,  their  lithological 
character  then  l)eing  unknown.  They  were  found  by  macroscopic 
and  microscopic  examination  to  have  been  made  from  argillite, 
greatly  indurated,  and  breaking  with  a  conchoidal  fracture.  The 
specimens  were  weathered  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  and  showed 
plainly  that  the  fractures  must  have  been  made  long  ago.  A  few 
small  fractures  of  secondary  character  occur.  This  secondary 
chipping  evidently  took  place  long  after  the  original  fractiwing, 
but  also  long  ago,  as  is  shown  by  the  weathering  of  the  surfaces  of 
both  the  primary  and  secoixlary  fractures.  The  few  secondary 
fractures  are  probably  natural,  and  could  easily  occur  if  subjected 
to  the  action  Dr.  Abbott  supposes.  Tiie  original  chipping  could 
not  have  taken  place  l)y  any  known  natural  causes  acting  upon 
rocks,  so  far  as  the  writer  lias  any  knowledge.  Of  course  it  then 
brings  us  to  the  only  agency  that  could  do  the  wojk — man.  The 
characters  of  the  si)ecimens,  pelrographically,  bore  out  the  state- 
ments made  to  me  by  Mr.  Putnam,  of  the  conditions  under  which 
they  were  found,  whether  upon  the  surface  or  in  the  gravels.     I  do 


wl 


ADPHESS    BY   CHARLES   C.    ABnOTT. 


9 


not  SCO  liow  it  is  possil.le  tliat  siicli  correspomlenco  of  cliaraclcrs 
could  exist  unkss  tlio  s[)ei;iiiieiis  wore  roiiinl  imder  tlie  coudilioiis 
ro|)()iU'd. 

Tlio  iitlioloiiiral  ciianicters  then  sliow  that  tlie  speciinons  are 
not  natural  Ibrnis ;  that  being  composed  of  a  slow  wcatliering 
rock,  they  must  have  been  made  long  years  ago ;  tliat  many  years 
hiter  tiiey  were  subject  to  otlier  conditions,  probablj'  natural,  by 
which  part  have  been  modilled  ;  that  since  then,  they  have  lain 
for  many,  many  j'cars  exposed  to  weathering  agencies ;  some 
showing  that  they  have  been  subject  to  tins  action  while  lying  on 
or  near  the  surface,  and  others  while  buried  to  some  depth, 

'I'heir  weathering  corresponds  to  that  observed  on  pebbles  of 
similar  composition  in  gravels  elsewhere.  It  is  to  be  remembered 
that  all  the  weathering  has  taken  place  since  the  Al)bott  speci- 
mens were  originally  chipped. 

The  term  weatiiering,  as  here  employed,  means  the  alteration 
and  decay  that  have  taken  place  on  the  surface  of  the  specimen, 
but  does  not  imply  that  it  has  been  exposed  on  the  surface  of  the 
ground;  it  may  or  may  not  have  been  ;  the  weathering  itself 
shows  with  greater  or  less  clearness  whether  this  occurred  IVom 
surface  exposure  or  not. 

Part  of  the  specimens  shown  me  bore  evidence  that  they  had 
originally  been  exposed  to  weathering  on  the  surface  of  the 
ground  and  been  covered  since,  but  the  covering  evidently  took 
place  ages  ago,  if  the  weathering  that  they  have  been  subjected 
to  since  is  any  criterion. 

The  term  "  argillite,"  as  employed  b^-  me,  is  used  to  designate 
all  argillaceous  rocks,  in  which  the  argillaceous  material  is  the 
predominant  charaeteriiitic  ;  slate  or  clay-slate,  clay-stone,  etc.,  are 
sim[>ly  varieties  of  it,  the  term  slate  being  only  rightl'Mlly  used 
when  slaty  cleavage  is  deveh)ped.  The  argillite  out  of  which 
these  spet'iniens  were  made  has  no  trace  of  cleavage." 

Aecoi'ding  to  I'rofessor  Ilaynes,  a  skilled  observiir,  who  has  given 
!nuch  time  to  the  sludj'  of  paheolithic  man  in  Europe,  as  well  as 
in  this  country,  "  the  term  palieolithic  is  primarily  restricted  in 
meaning  to  such  objects  ....  when  met  wilh  under  peculiar  geo- 
logical conditions ;  that  is  to  say,  when  found  embedded  in  the 
gravels  which  have  i)een  dei)osited  by  certain  rivers  during  the 
period  known  to  liie  geologists  as  the  (juaternary  or  pleistocene 
period.     At  that  time  their  volume  of  water  was  much   greater 


10 


SECTION    H. 


than  it  now  is,  which  was  caused  by  tlic  melting  of  the  great  ice- 
cap tliat  once  covered  the  nortliern  portion  of  both  continents,  ac- 
companied by  a  climate  much  more  humid  than  we  have  at  present. 
Such  accumulations  of  gravel  are  often  of  very  great  thickness 
and  embedded  in  them,  side  by  side  witii  the  stone  implements 
above  described,  are  found  the  fossil  bones  of  extinct  species  of 
animals,  such  as  the  mamniotii."  After  mentioning,  in  the  same 
paper,  the  various  localities  in  Europe  that  he  had  carefully  exam- 
ined, he  remarks  with  reference  to  the  locality  under  considera- 
tion : 

"From  these  various  experiences  I  feel  myself  warranted  in  stat- 
ing that  the  general  appearance  of  the  countrj'  and  the  character 
of  the  gravels  at  Trenton,  N.  J.,  present  a  most  striking  resem- 
blance to  what  I  have  seen  in  the  various  localities  in  the  Old 
World  to  which  I  have  referred.  There  is  the  same  rudely  strati- 
fied mingling  of  coarse  materials  marked  by  a  similar  absence  of 
clay Speaking  .  .  .  from  an  archaeological  stand- 
point, I  do  not  hesitate  to  declare  my  firm  conviction  that  the  rude 
argillite  olijects  found  in  the  gravels  of  the  Delaware  river,  at  Tren- 
ton, N.  J.,  are  true  palicolithic  implements." 

My  own  impressions  of  their  true  character  was  not  suddenly 
reached.  The  evidence,  of  other  kind,  of  the  antiquity  of  the  In- 
dian, led  me  to  consider  them  as  rude  objects  made  for  some  trivial 
purpose  and  discarded.  Later,  I  became  couviiiced  that  the\'  were 
older  than  ordinary  surface-found  relics,  and  assumed  that  the  In- 
dian of  histor}'  commenced  his  career  in  this  valley  while  in  the 
palaeolithic  stage  of  culture. 

Thus,  wiiilc  pursuing  my  collecting  of  Indian  relics,  it  was  grad- 
ually forced  upon  my  mind  that  these  rude  implements  were  more 
intimately  associated  with  the  gravel  than  with  tiie  surface  of  the 
ground  and  the  relics  of  the  Indians  found  ui)on  it. 

Acting  upon  this,  J  continued  for  two  years  to  examine  most 
carefully  both  the  surface  of  our  fields  and  every  exposure  of  the 
underlying  gravels  ;  and  in  June,  1876,  after  having  fouml  several 
chipped  implements  in  situ,  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  Dela- 
ware river,  "  now  occupying  a  comparatively  snudl  and  shallow 
channel,  once  fiowed  at  an  elevation  of  nearly  fifty  feet  above  its 
present  level ;  and  it  was  when  such  a  mighty  stream  as  tiiis,  liijit 
man  first  gazed  upon  its  waters  and  lost  tiiose  rude  weaixms  in  its 
swift   current,  that  now,  in  the  beds  of  gravel  which  its  fioods 


~^n 


ADDRKSS  BY  CHARLES  C.  ABBOTT. 


11 


lie 

,(1- 
rc 


ill 

I  Sl- 
ow 
Us 
lat 
its 

)(ls 


have  deposited,  are  alike  tlie  puzzle  and  delight  of  the  arclueolo- 
gist.  Ilud  those  lirst  comers,  like  the  troglod3'tes  of  Fnmce,  con- 
venient caves  to  shelter  thcni,  doubtless  we  should  have  their  better 
wrought  implements  of  bone  to  tell  more  surely  the  story  of  their 
ancient  sojourn  here;  but  wanting  them,  their  history  is  not  alto- 
gether lost,  and  in  the  rude  weapons,  now  deeply  emi)edded  in  the 
river's  banks,  we  learn,  at  least,  the  fact  of  the  presence,  in  the  dis- 
tant past,  of  an  earlier  people  than  the  Indian." 

Thus  it  will  i)e  seen  that  I  have  i)een  fairly  cautious  in  my  state- 
ments and  slow  in  reaching  any  conclusions  with  reference  to  t.iese 
implements  which  sei)arated  them  from  ordinary  Indian  relics. 

In  September,  1876,  Mr.  Putnam,  the  Curator  of  the  Pealjody 
Museum  of  Archmology  at  Cambridge,  Mass.,  favored  me  with  a 
visit,  and  together  we  carefully  examined  the  river  blulf  below 
Trenton,  and  succeeded  in  finding  two  specimens  in,  situ,  sucii  as  I 
bad  previously  described  in  the  American  Naturalist.  At  his  re- 
quest, I  continu'-  '  my  examinations  of  those  gravels,  acting  under 
an  api)ropriation  made  by  the  Peal)ody  Museum  for  this  puri)ose  ; 
and,  in  November  of  the  same  year,  submitted  to  him  a  rc[)ort  On 
the  Discovery  of  Supimsed  iMlwolithic  Implements  f mm  the  Glacial 
Drift  in  the  Valley  of  the  Delaioare  liioer,  near  Trenton  New  Jer- 
sey. Still  realizing  how  all-important  it  was  in  this  matter  to  make 
haste  slowly,  I  i)urposcly  referred  to  these  chipped  stones  as  sup- 
posed paliBolithic  inii)lements,  and  gave,  in  detail,  my  reasons  for 
thus  considering  them. 

Keferring  to  this  report,  Mr.  Putnam  remarked,  in  his  annual 
report  to  the  trustees  of  the  Peabody  Museum,  that  "  from  a  visit 
to  the  locality  with  Dr.  Abbott,  I  see  no  reason  to  doubt  the  gen- 
eral conclusion  he  has  reached  in  regard  to  the  existence  of  man 
in  glacial  times  on  the  Atlantic  coast  of  Nortli  America." 

IJefore  this  report  was  published  these  gravel  de[)osits  were  vis- 
it(,d  by  Prof.  N.  S.  Shaler,  who  was  fortunate  enough  to  lind  a 
characteristic  S[)eciinen,  but  not  in  situ.  I  also  found  one,  like- 
wise in  the  talus.  Of  those  sijeciniens,  Professor  Shaler  says, 
"  Although  the  whole  face  of  the  escarpment  is  in  motion,  cree[)- 
ing  slowly  under  the  intiuence  of  frost  and  gr;ivity  towaids  its 
base,  it  was  dilllcult  to  believe  that  these  si)ecimens,  fountl  about 
twelve  feet  below  the  top  of  the  bank,  had  travelled  down  from 
the  superficial  soil." 

Continuing  my  own  researciics,  in  1S77,  1  made  a  second  re[)ort 


12 


SECTION   n. 


on  the  occniTence  of  these  implements,  and  re-afHrmed  my  convic- 
tion tiiat  in  tlic  specimens  of  artidcially  c!iipi)e(l  pel)l)les,  from 
tiiese  gravel  deposits,  we  have  evidence  of  man's  presence  at  an 
earlier  date  than  the  supposed  advent  of  the  Indian  ;  and  referred 
them  geoloijically  to  tlie  glacial  ej)ocli,  in  accordance  with  the 
writings  of  I'rofcssor  Cook,  state  geologist  of  New  Jersey,  who 
had  pronounced  these  gravels  as  of  glacial  origin. 

This,  briefly,  is  the  history  of  my  own  lai)ors  in  this  field  ;  la- 
bors continued  to  the  present  time  and  with  results  that  have  in- 
variably confirmed  my  impressions,  as  I  have  outlined  them. 

But  admitting  that  a  given  class  of  stone  implements  is  char- 
acteristic of  a  given  fie{)osit  of  gravel,  and  I  think  we  nnist  admit 
this  now,  wliat  is  the  geological  history  of  this  deposit?  Is  it  too 
recent  to  be  of  special  import,  or  too  ancient  to  be  of  archseologi- 
cal  significance?  IJoth  views  have  i)eon  hold,  and  neither  proves 
tenable.  That  the  former  view  should  have  found  supporters  is  in- 
deed strange.  Certainly  there  is  now  no  movement  of  the  gravel 
by  the  river,  whatever  its  condition  or  freshet  stage  ;  and  certainly, 
if  these  rude  forms  were  of  identical  origin  with  common  Indian 
relics,  then  rude  and  elaborate  alike, — ^jasper,  quartz,  porphyry  and 
slate  together  ;  axes,  siiears,  pottery  and  ornaments,  all  of  whicli 
are  found  upon  the  surface,  should  have  gradually  become  com- 
mingled with  the  gravel,  even  to  great  depths.  Any  disturbance 
that  wo\ild  bury  one,  would  inhume  alike  the  various  forms  of  neo- 
lithic implements.     Such,  however,  is  not  the  case. 

How  old  and  not  how  recent  are  the  Delaware  valley,  or,  as  they 
are  now  known,  Trenton  grave's?  This,  it  is  all-imi)ortant,.'.lu;MUl 
be  definitely  determined.  Until  recently,  there  has  l)een  the  widest 
range  of  opinion  upon  this  point,  and  so  great  an  antiquity  claimed, 
that  it  was  wholly  incredible  that  man  should  then  have  lived.  How 
true  it  is,  as  I'rof.  Morse  has  tersely  remarked,  "Man,  profoundly 
interested  in  his  origin  and  antiquity,  finds  himself  hampered  in 
his  investigations  by  the  opinions  and  prejudices  that  have  grown 
up  with  him.  He  finds  it  well-nigh  impossil,>le  to  step  outside  of 
himself  and  regard  himself  as  a  mammal  among  hundreds  of  other 
species  of  nnunmals." 

Depending  upon  others  for  my  geology,  under  the  circumstances 
mentioned,  it  can  readily  bo  understood  why  I  was  often  so  sadly 
bewildered.  It  was  not  only  an  instance  of  many  men  of  many 
minds,  but  occasionally  the  same  individual  with  numerous  opin- 


ADDUKSS    BY  CHARLES  C.  ABBOTT. 


13 


low 
(Uy 
i\  in 
>\vu 
e  of 
Lher 

K'OS 

aiy 

any 
)in- 


ions.  Ai'cliroolojrical  investigation,  under  sucli  circninstancea,  was 
jin  np-iiill  task,  tiie  patli  to  tlie  trutli  hein;^  i)!()ckcil  l)y  tiie  obsta- 
cles tiiat  ignorance,  prejudice  and  iiasty  conclusions  heaped  about 
it;  but  all  the  wiiile,  tlie  gravel-beds  theniselve.5  were  inexorable 
and  continued  to  yield  evidences  of  man  in  s[)ite  of  the  interdic- 
tions of  the  bartled  prophets. 

A  clear  light  was  linally  thrown  upon  these  implement-bearing 
gravels,  as  the  result  of  a  careful  study  of  them,  from  a  geological 
standpoint,  by  Rev.  G.  Frederick  Wright,  who,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  has  determined  the  relationship  of  all  such  deposits,  lying 
immediately' south  of  the  terminal  moraine,  to  tliat  greater  deposit, 
and  so  given  us  approximately,  their  own  agt;  antl  connection  with 
tlie  last  glacial  epoch. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  give  in  detail,  the  conclusions  reached  by 
I\[r.  Wright.  Sullice  it  to  say,  that  he  shows  these  gravels  to  be 
the  last  important  result  of  the  glacial  epoch,  the  direct  result  of 
the  melting  of  the  glaciers,  as  they  retired  northward  ;  and  that 
while  this  was  in  progress,  the  rude  implements  of  palreolithic 
man  were  lost  and  embedded  in  them. 

Admitting  this,  how  long  ago  did  it  take  place?  How  great  an 
antiquity  does  it  imply?  In  this  matter,  Mr.  Wrigi)t  has  been  very 
generous,  for  which  we  are  duly  thankful,  for  the  archicologist  has 
an  almost  insatiable  ap[)etite,  never  j'ct  having  had  his  fill  of  ages. 

Concerning  the  antiquity  of  |)aliUolilhic  man  in  North  /anerica, 
Mr.  Wright  has  remarked  as  follows  : 

"A  word  may  properly  be  said  with  reference  to  the  bearing  of 
these  facts  upon  the  date  of  man's  appearance  in  America.  In 
the  lirst  place,  it  should  be  observed  that,  to  say  man  was  here  be- 
fore the  close  of  the  glacial  period  only  fixes  a  minimum  point  as 
to  his  antiquity.  How  long  he  may  have  been  here  previous  to  that 
time  must  be  determined  by  otluM-  considerations.  Secondly,  with 
our  present  knowledge  of  glacial  |)henomena,  the  date  of  the  close  of 
the  glacial  period  is  regarded  as  much  more  modern  than  it  was  a  few 
years  ago.  Sir  Charles  Lyell's  estimate  of  .'5.'), 000  years  as  the  age 
of  the  Niagara  gorge,  which  is  one  of  the  best  measures  of  [)ost- 
glacial  time  which  has  yet  been  studied,  is  greatly  reduced  by  what 
we  now  know  of  the  rate  at  which  erosion  is  proceeding  at  the  falls. 
Ten  thousand  years  is  now  reganled  as  a  liberal  allowance  for  the 
age  of  that  gorge.  IJiit,  linally,  the  term  "close  of  the  glacial  pe- 
riod" is  itself  a  very  indelinile  exi)ressiou.     Theg'acial  period  was 


14 


SECTION    U. 


a  lonj;  time  in  closing.  The  erosion  of  tiie  Niaa;ara  gorge  began 
at  a  lime  long  snbscfjuent  to  the  deposit  of  tiie  gravel  at  Trenton 
and  at  IMadisonville.  Between  those  two  events  time  enongii  nnist 
have  elapsed  for  the  ice-front  to  have  reeede<l  a  Imndred  miles  or 
more,  or  all  tiie  distance  from  New  York  to  Albany  ;  since  only  at 
that  stage  of  retreat  wonld  the  valley  of  the  Mohawk  have  been 
freed  from  ice  so  as  to  allow  the  Niagara  River  to  l)egin  its  work. 
The  deposits  at  Trenton  and  Madisonville  took  place  while  the  ice- 
sheet  still  lingered  in  the  southern  watershed  of  New  York  Penn- 
sylvania and  Ohio,"  and  in  a  letter  to  nw.,,  bearing  iii)on  th  ;  ques- 
ion,  he  luis  kindly  added,  "you  have  got  all  the  time  you  need,  so 
far  as  1  can  now  see."  This  is  certainly  encouraging !  There  was 
a  time  when,  to  all  appearances,  American  archicology  would  have 
to  be  squeezed  into  the  cramped  (juarlers  of  ten  thousand  years ; 
but  we  are  pretty  sure  of  twenty  or  even  thirty  thousand  now,  in 
which  to  spread  ont  in  proper  sequence  and  without  confusion  the 
long  train  of  human  activities  that  have  transpired  during  pre- 
historic time. 

Mr.  McGee,  .at  the  last  meeting  of  this  Association,  in  giving 
the  results  of  his  studies  of  the  Coiumliia  formation,  remarks  as 
follows :  "It  has  been  inferred  from  the  rehuion  of  the  Columbia 
formation  to  the  terminal  moraine  and  the  drift-sheet  which  it 
fringes,  that  the  older  deposit  represents  a  period  of  quaternary 
cold,  much  earlier,  much  longer  continued,  and  accompanied  by 
much  greater  snl)mergence,  than  the  epoch  of  cold  represented  by 
the  newer  deposits  ;  and  it  has  been  inferred  from  the  relative  ero- 
sion of  water-w.ays  since  the  two  de|)03its — Columbia  and  latest 
glacial — were  formed  that  the  interval  of  mild  climate  and  high 
level  of  the  land  between  the  two  epochs  of  cold  was  from  three  to 
ten  times  as  long  as  tiie  postglacial  period.  These  inferences  are 
fully  sustained  by  a  long  series  of  oliservations  extending  over  three 
years  of  time  and  many  thousand  scpiare  miles  of  area." 

If  then,  we  accept  the  most  moderate  estimate  of  the  length  of 
postglacial  time,  some  six  thousand  years,  we  have  of  interglacial 
time  (t.  e.,  between  the  first  and  second  epochs)  from  eigliteen 
thousand  to  sixty  thousand  3'ears,  and  to  this,  as  I  understand  the 
matter,  must  be  added,  the  long  stretch  of  time  during  which  the 
second  e[)och  of  cohl  continued.  Assuniing,  therefore,  tiiat  geolo- 
gists have  made  no  misluke,  arclueology  has  time  enough  and  to 
spare.     At  no  time  was  the  continent  uninhabitable,  however  thick 


ADDRESS    BY  CHARLES    C.  ABBOTT. 


15 


igUi  of 

Ighiciiil 

iflitccn 

■111(1  the 

licli  llic 

geolo- 

:ui(l  to 

jr  thick 


and  wide-rencliing  the  ice,  or  deeply  siihmcrged  the  lower  lying 
areas.  Still  there  was  hind  enough  Cor  mammalian  life  in  all  its 
glory,  and  it  nourished  at  the  very  foot  of  the  atlvancing  ice-siieet, 
and  reiintored  every  tract  as  the  glaciers  withdrew.  Tiien  we  had 
tlic  mastodon  and  mammoth,  reindeer  and  bison,  musk-ox  and 
moose  and  Man  familiar  with  them  all. 

In  November,  1887,  Mr.  McGee  presented  to  the  Anthroj)olog- 
ical  Society  of  Washington,  a  communication  on  "The  Conditions 
of  Accunndation  of  the  Trenton  Gravels."  As  it  gives  the  dear- 
est description  of  the  geological  conditions  of  the  ncighlxn-hood,  I 
propose  to  quote  freel^y  from  an  abstract  of  the  paper  kind)}-  fur- 
nished mc  bj'  the  author. 

Mr.  McGee  says  :  "There  are,  in  the  vicinity  of  Trenton,  N.  J., 
two  distinct  gravel  deposits  widely  different  in  age.  Tiic  first  is 
a  mass  of  current-bedded  pebbles,  cobbles,  bowlders  and  coarse 
sand,  generally  graduating  npward  into  a  lioniogeneous  loam  or 
brick  clay  containing  rare  bowlders  ;  tiie  deposit  rises  to  altitudes 
of  perliaps  two  hundred  and  lifty  feet  in  the  latitude  of  Trenton, 
covers  the  surface  generally  as  a  mantle  of  variable  tiiiclcness  up 
to  lifty  or  sixty  feet  and  is  sometimes  fashioned  into  terraces — 
tiu'ougli  one  of  tlie  best  examples  of  wliich  the  Delaware  river  lias 
cut  a  moderately  broad  gorge  in  tlie  upper  part  of  tiie  city  of 
Trenton  ;  the  brick  clays  and  gravel  di'posits  along  the  Delaware 
river  .  .  .  the  Columbia  formation  of  tlie  present  autlior  (McGee) 
.  .  .  represent  a  snb-osluarine  or  subm.'irine  delta  of  the  Dela- 
ware river,  togetlier  witli  associated  littoral  tleposits  formed  during 
the  earlier  epoch  of  cold  of  the  Quaternary  when  the  land  in  tlie 
latitude  of  Trenton  was  submerged  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  or 
more. 

The  second  gravel  deposit  is  confined  to  an  irregular  area  of  tiie 
lowlands  on  both  sides  of  the  Delaware  river  above  its  great  bend 
at  Bordentown.  It  is  composed  of  pelibies  and  coblilos  (most  of 
which  are  well  roumled),  together  willi  scattered  bowlders,  eiul)eil- 
ded  in  a  scant  matrix  of  sand,  loam  and  silt;  tlie  surface  of  the 
deposit  is  generally  iiorizonial  save  wiiere  cut  by  recent  drainage 
and  its  base  is  irregular  ;  its  maxiinum  tiiickness  reacliiiig  perliaps 
forty  or  fifty  feet.  It  is  evidently  water-laid,  tiiou^li  its  liowlders 
appear  to  be  ice-dro[)ped,  and  it  uiKiiieslioualily  is  liie  sontliern- 
inost  extension  of  tiie  overwasii  gravels  from  the  leriiiiiial  moraine 
formed  during  the  later  epoch  of  cold  of  the  Quaternary  when  the 


16 


SECTION    II. 


land  was  dopresaecl  as  far  southward  as  Pliiladelphia.  It  is  to  this 
deposit  that  tlic  naino  "T  nton  Gravels"  has  I)cen  applied,  and 
its  interest  to  anthropologists  lies  in  the  liiet  that  paheolithic  im- 
plements are  abundantlj-  embedded  within  it. 

The  eonliguration  and  structure  oC  the  Trenton  gravels  alike  in- 
dicate that  they  were  deposited  within  and  practically  filled  an 
estuary  of  the  Delaware  river  contemporaneous  with  the  later 
northern  ice  sheet  and  the  hypsometric  and  geographic  distribution 
of  the  deposit  indicates  the  geograithic  conditions  existing  above 
the  head  of  the  Delaware  Bay  at  that  period.  Restored  in  accord- 
ance with  the  testimony  of  the  Trenton  gravels  the  Delaware  Bay 
of  late  quaternary  time  is  transmuted  from  its  present  condition 
to  a  narrow  tidal  river,  similar  to  the  lower  Hudson,  extending 
from  the  terminal  moraine  to  Trenton,  and  tliere  expanding  sud- 
denly into  a  broad  estuary  analogous  with  that  of  the  Susijuelianna 
at  its  cmbcuchure  into  Chesapeake  Bay  ;  indeed,  the  ancient  Del- 
aware Bay  so  closely  resembled  the  present  Chesa[)eake  Baj-  that 
the  latter  conveys  a  definite  conception  of  the  former.  The  de- 
pression of  tiie  ice-burdened  land  extended  southward  barely  to 
riiiladelphia,  and  thus  the  tidal  waters  occupied  a  considerable 
area  similar  to  the  expanded  head  of  Chesapeake  Bay.  Into  tliis 
ancient  Delaware  Bay  the  great  river,  fed  by  the  melting  ice  sheet, 
swept  its  detritus  to  be  dislril)uted  by  the  waves  and  dcsposited  in 
horizontal  layers;  anil  during  the  seasons  of  most  rapid  melting, 
ice  fioes  formed  nearer  the  margin  of  the  glacier,  bore  the  sand, 
pebbles  and  bowlders  collected  in  the  ui)por  reaches  of  the  river 
into  this  bay  and  there  they  floated  in  the  currentless  waters  until 
they  dropped  their  l)urdens,  just  as  do  the  smaller  tee  fioes  in  the 
Chesapeake  Bay  of  to-day  ;  while  the  liner  detritus  was  mainly  de- 
posited in  the  upper  reach  of  the  river  as  is  tiie  case  to-day  in  the 
Hudson.  Meantime,  the  northern  ice  was  a  hundred  nuljs  away 
and  did  not  prevent  primitive  man  from  assend)ling  about  the  low 
and  hospitable  shores  of  the  miniatiu-e  sea  which  was  probably  the 
home  oi  I'nh  and  fowl  just  as  Cliesapeake  Bay  is  now  the  haunt  of 
myriads  of  ducks  and  geese,  and  a  famous  fishing  ground  ;  and 
over  the  bosom  of  the  bay,  little  alfected  b^-  tide  because  of  its 
distance  from  the  ocean,  and  little  distuibed  l»y  waves  because  of 
its  shoalness,  pakeoliliiic'  man  may  have  fioaled  on  liie  simplest 
craft  or  even  have  waded  in  the  shallow  waters,  as  either  primitive 
or  civilized  man  might  in  the  modern  Chesiipeake.     These  are  the 


ADDRESS    «Y  CHARLES    C.  ADBOTT. 


17 


(lo- 


iver 

unlil 

the 

y  ^'^'" 
tlie 

iiway 

low 

Uic 

lit  of 

tuul 

f  its 

ise  of 

pli'st 

iiitivc 

e  tlio 


conditions  under  wliicli  the  Trenton  gravels  were  accumuliited  and 
the  preseiK'o  of  contemporary  man  is  attested  liy  tlic  examples  of 
his  handiwork  in  all  h(M'i/',oiis  of  the  deposit. 

It  is  signilicant  that  ail  [niiarly  all — C.  C  A.]  the  paliuolithic 
implements  foiiiid  in  the  Trenton  gravels  are  of  like  material —  i.  e., 
a  variety  of  argillite — and  that  natnral  pebbles  of  this  material  are 
rare  in  the  formation.  It  occurs  in  siln  ....  not  far  from  the 
Quaternary  ice  margin,  and  bowlders  of  it  are  occasionally  found 
in  the  deposit  about  Trenton,  but  its  occurrence  in  the  form  of 
jxjbbles  is  so  rare  as  to  indicate  that  the  implements  must  have 
been  manufacturod  at  a  distance  and  c:irried  by  iiuinan  agency  to 
the  ancient  Delaware  to  be  lost  beneath  its  waters.  It  is  signifi- 
cant, too,  that  the  demonstrably  artificial  olijects  are  least  abun- 
dant toward  the  l)ase  of  the  (U![)osit  whieii  was  laid  down  liefore 
the  geographic  conditions  above  indicated  were  fully  developed 
and  that  they  increase  in  abundance  upward  culminating  in  the 
superior  portion  of  the  deposit  formed  when  tin;  geography  of  the 
ancient  Delaware  most  closely  ap|)roaehed  that  of  the  present 
Cliesapeake  ;  filially,  it  is  sigiiilieaiit  that  the  distinctive  paheolith 
found  within  the  Trenton  gravel  are  also  found  on  the  adjacent 
surface  made  up  of  tlie  older  (Columliia)  gravels  associated  with 
implements  of  more  modern  type,  but  that  they  are  exceedingly 
rare  over  the  surface  of  the  Trenton  gravels  themselves  upon  which 
the  more  modern  implements  arc  common. 

It  should  be  noted  that  by  study  of  the  Trenton  and  Colninbian 
gravels  in  conjunction  with  investigations  of  the  terminal  moraine 
and  other  glacial  deposits  farther  northward,  the  Quaternary  his- 
tory of  the  n^gioii  aliout  T'reiiton  has  lK;eii  I'lueidated.  It  has  been 
ascertained  that  the  (Quaternary  period  of  tlu;  geologists  comiirised 
two  great  epochs  of  cold  ....  and  it  is  noteworthy  that  all  of 
the  remains  of  palioolitliic  man  thus  far  authentically  reported  from 
the  (iuaternaiy  deposits  of  eastern  United  States  have  come  from 
deposits  from  the  later  ice  action." 

Why  should  we  abstain  from  reconstructing  a  picture  of  the  past 
from  the  fossils  characteristic  of  a  given  geological  horizon,  simply 
because  man  must  be  included?  To  deny  that  any  record  is  read 
aright  because  man  lignres  in  the  i)ast  with  extinct  animals  is  the 
height  of  absurdity  ;  and  yet,  overwhelming  as  is  the  evidence, 
intelligent  people  still  claim  a  Scotch  verdict  of  "not  proven, '» 
must,  at  least,  be  given.  1  go,  myself,  still  farther  and  claim  that 
8 


18 


SECTION   n. 


the  Delaware  Indians  witnessed  in  New  Jersey  the  extinction  of  the 
mastodon  ;  evidence  to  tiiis  ofl'oct  temling  to  aiiow  not  so  ninch 
tlie  very  recent  dcstriu'tioii  ot'tiic  iiiiistodoii  in  Ncw.Tcrscy,  as  tliat 
the  Indian  lias  a  very  respeclahli!  anliciuity.  Willi  llie  disposition 
to  modernize  evcrylliinii  in  connection  with  the  Indian,  as  is  now 
so  popular,  I  have  ni^  patience.  To  claim  that  every  artistic  relic 
exhumed  from  the  mounds  is  the  handiwork  of  Kiiropeans,  or  in- 
dicates an  association  with  a  superior  race,  is  hut  a  cheap  and  not 
creditahle  method  of  explainiii<f  away  the  beautiful  objects  that 
have  been  taken  from  many  of  these  wonderful  earthworks. 

Wiien  my  learned  friend  Dr.  Urinton,  in  aildressing  this  Associa- 
tion, a  year  ago,  remarked,  "To  me  the  exceeding  diversity  of 
languages  in  America  an<l  the  many  dialects  into  which  these  have 
split,  are  cogent  proofs  of  the  vast  aiiti(|uity  of  the  race,  an  anticj- 
nity  stretching  back  tens  of  thousands  of  3'ears.  Nothing  less  can 
explain  these  multitudinous  forms  of  speech," —  I  could  understand 
him,  thinking  as  I  did,  of  paheolithicnian,  and  tlie  then  even  more 
remote  races  of  the  Pacilic  coast ;  but  when  this  same  author,  states 
as  his  opinion,  "The  uncertainty  which  rests  over  the  age  of  the 
structures  at  Tiahunnaco  is  scarcely  greater  than  that  which  still 
shrouds  the  origin  of  the  mounds  and  earthworks  of  the  Ohio  and 
Upi)cr  Mississippi  valleys.  Yet  I  venture  to  say  that  the  opinion 
is  steadily  gaining  ground  that  these  interesting  memorials  of  van- 
ished nations  are  not  older  than  the  mediiKval  i)eriod  of  European 
history.  Tlie  condition  of  the  arts  which  they  reveal  indicates  a 
date  that  we  must  place  among  the  more  recent  in  American  chro- 
nology. The  simple  fact  that  tobacco  and  maize  were  cultivated 
plants  is  evitlence  enough  for  this,"  —  1  ain  at  a  loss  to  discover 
any  valid  basis  for  such  a  conclusion. 

If,  as  Brinton  assumes,  the  mounds  of  Ohio  were  all  erected  dur- 
ing the  past  few  centuries,  what  of  the  "  tens  of  thousands  of  years" 
during  which  the  language  or  languages  of  the  mound-builders  was 
in  course  of  construction  and  subsequent  subdivisions  into"  multi- 
tudinous forms  of  speech."  Is  it  logical  to  suppose  that,  during  the 
immense  la|)se  of  time  demanded  by  Dr.  lirintonfor  the  formation 
of  languages,  these  people  did  nothing,  advanced  nothing  and  be- 
came capable  of  building  an  earthwork  only  at  the  very  close  of 
an  enormously  long  career?  I  cannot  think  it.  That  there  are 
mounds  in  Ohio  that  date  far  back  of  any  historic^  trit)eof  Indians, 
liiis,  I  believe,  been  fully  demonstrated  by  the  cautious  and  ex- 
haustive explorations  conducted  by  Professor  Putnam  and  Dr.  Mctz. 


AUDUKSS    Uy  CIIAULES    C.   ABnOTT. 


19 


Lot  lis  return  to  tlie  consideration  of  early  man  in  New  Jersey 
and  to  his  association  witii  extinct  mammals.  That  carefid  student 
ol"  tlie  suhject,  lie  v.  Samuel  Lockwood,  has  {fiven  us  a  dcliglitful 
account  of  the  discovery  of  a  mastodon  in  an  old  heaver  meailow, 
an<l  with  his  conclusions  upon  tiie  suhject,  I  will  dismiss  this  phase 
of  the  question  of  early  man.  Says  Dr.  Lockwood  :  "  Two  facts 
have  much  impressed  mo  —  the  great  gcolo<^ical  antiquit}' of  the 
mastodons  as  a  race,  and  the  very  recent  existence  of  the  iudivid- 
ual  we  are  discussing.  The  race  began  in  Miocene  time  ;  this  in- 
dividual lived  in  the  Quaternary  age,  and  well  up  into  the  soil- 
making  period.  .  .  .  Thougli  the  race  came  hefori^  tliose  great 
castors  now  extinct,  this  individual  was  contemporary  with  the  ex- 
isting beaver,  and  doui)tless  with  the  aboriginal  man.  ...  It 
is  plain  that  the  nuistodon  came  into  what  is  now  New  Jersey  ere 
the  ice-sheet  began.  It  receded  south  before  it.  It  followed  the 
thawing  northward,  and  so  again  possessed  tlie  land.  It  occupied 
this  part  of  the  country  when  its  shore-line  was  mii(!s  farlher  out 
to  sea  than  it  is  to-day.  Here  it  was  confronted  by  the  human 
savage,  in  whom  it  found  more  than  its  malcii ;  for,  before  this  uu- 
tochthonic  Nimrod,  IJehenioth  meltcHl  away." 

Having  made  clear,  I  trust,  what  is  meant  by  paheolithic  man, 
and  shown  also,  that  he  loas  a  fact  and  ix  not  a  fancy,  the  (jues- 
tion  naturally  arises,  What  was  his  fate?  Did  he,  like  tiie  nuisto- 
don, become  extinct,  or  has  he  descendants  still  living  on  this 
continent?  There  is  opened  here  a  wide  Held,  but  alas!  with  so 
few  landmarks  and  these  but  ill  detined,  that  the  student  is  much 
in  the  position  of  the  mariner  when  under  clomled  skies  and  with- 
out a  compass. 

There  has  been  some  speculation  and  a  few  bold  assertions  con- 
corning  the  relationship  of  Jlumo  2Mlivolithicufi  to  existing  races, 
but  1  am  not  aware  that  any  statement  has  been  made,  wherein 
the  few  facts  in  our  possession  are  claimed  to  afford  conclusive  or 
presumptive  evidence.  Certainly  so  far  as  my  own  experience  goes, 
the  inference  I  drew  from  the  character  of  the  stone  imi)lemcnt8 
does  not  accord  with  the  crania  found  in  the  Trenton  gravel.  These 
are  not  crania  of  Eskimos,  and  I  had  long  inclined  to  the  sup[)osi- 
tion  that  to  these  people  might  be  referred  the  ruder  forms  of  stone 
weapons,  such  as  wo  have  seen  are  found  in  the  gravels  of  the  river 
valley.   On  the  other  hand,  the  three  skulls  referred  to  are  unques- 


80 


8KCTI0N    n. 


tionnbly  (liflorpnt  from  those  of  tlio  known  tribes  of  Indians  of  tlio 
Doliiwiire  valley. 

Kcv.  15.  F.  I)i>  Coslii  liiis,  niKlor  tlio  title  of"  Tlio  Ghiciiil  Unn 
in  Anu'iicti "  piilillslu'd  ii  very  llioiiiilitful  pjipor  in  wliicli  ho  en- 
deavors to  mIiow,  from  historieid  diilii,  the  pliuisihijily  of  the  view 
that  the  Esidnio  now  representH  this  most  uneient  of  America's 
ruees. 

This  author  states  that  "  whatever  may  ho  eonehided  ultimately 
respecting  the  antitpnty  of  the  Delaware  flints,  it  is  quite  apparent 
that  the  red-man  found  in  Amoriea  at  the  period  of  its  rediscovery 
by  Cabot,  Vesinieei,  and  Columbus,  was  not  the  descendant  of  any 
glacial  man.  No  lino  of  connection  can  be  made  out.  This  con- 
tinent does  not  appear  to  have  any  Kent's  Hole  like  that  at  Torbay, 
alforilinjf  a  continuous  history,  be<j;inning  witii  tiio  cave-boar  and 
cndinji  with  '  W .  Hodues,  of  Ireland,  Itiss,' "  uiid  again,"  however 
man  may  have  reached  America,  the  theory  that  the  Indian  peoples 
sprang  from  any  glacial  stock  seems  untenable.  This  then,  neces- 
sitales  the  inquiry  res|)ecling  the  subsecpient  history  of  the  primi- 
tive inhabitant;  otherwise,  what  became  of  him? 

That  a  peopU;  correspoinling  in  the  main  to  the  supposed  glacial 
man  once  dwelt  as  far  sf)uth  as  Now  Jersej'  has  been  agreed  by 
various  writers,  without  any  reference  to  the  contents  of  the  glacial 
deposits,  of  whoso  existence  they  did  not  dream.  When,  for  in- 
Btanco  wo  turn  to  the  Icelandic  Sagas  r<'laling  to  America,  it  be- 
comes apparent  that  the  Kscpiimaux  once  flourished  low  dov.n  upon 
the  Atlantic  coast."  Ami  yet  again,  quoting  from  the  same  essay, 
we  find  the  statement,  "The  so-called  aboriginal  red-man  is  com- 
paratively a  modern,  although  the  author  of  '  Loaves  of  Grass' 
nski'  concerning  '  the  friendl}*  and  fl(jwing  savage,' is  he  '  waiting 
for  civilization,  or  i)ast  it  and  mastiiring  it?'  However  this  may 
bo,  he  is  wandering  over  the  graves  of  peo[)les  who  left  no  record 
of  their  ex|>loits,  either  in  the  continent  whore  the}'  sprang  into  life 
or  where  they  died.  ...  In  Now  England  he  must  have  suc- 
cceiled  the  people  known  as  Skriel lings.  Prior  to  that  time,  his 
hunting-grounds  lay  toward  the  interior  of  the  continent.  In  course 
ol  time,  however,  he  came  into  collision  with  the  ruder  people  on 
the  Atlantic!  coast,  the  descendants  of  an  almost  amphibious  glacial 
man.  Then  the  coast-dweller,  unable  to  maintain  his  position,  re- 
treated toward  the  far  north.     The  northward  movement,  however, 


ADDRESS  iiy  ciunt.p.s  c.  AnnOTT. 


21 


may  have  1)oen  voluntary  in  part.     During  lon<?  ages  passed  in  tlic 

COinpMiiionsliip  of  tlu!  jiiiicicr,  llio  vtuw  must  liavt!  acipiiicd  tliat 
taste  and  (iliii'ss  for  lioicid  lil'i!  wliii-li  clings  to  tlio  natives  (;!'  llio 
norlii  to-day,  and  wiiicii  inaiics  tiic  (iiccnlandor  fui'l  tliat  ids  coiin- 
tfy  is  till'  most  lieaiitilul  in  tlic;  world." 

Let  US  si'o  now  to  wliat  cxtiMit  tiu'si!  statiMnontsol'  Mv.  Dc  Costa 
ni'u  l)orno  out  l)y  tlio  tract's  ofoarl^'  man  in  Now  .Jersey.     Do  tliey 
or  do  tliey  not  lend  prolial)ility  to  tliom?     1   iiave  given  you  tlie 
evidence,  so  i'ai'  as  gatiioreil  orstrielly  pala'olitliii'  man,  living  in  the 
valley  of  the  Delaware?  during  tiie  last  epoch  of  cold.     It  consists 
mainly  of  the  rudest  known  forms  of  large  stont;  implements,  made 
of  argillite  of  lliiity  hardness  and  hreaking  w  ith  a  conchoidal  fract- 
ure.   Its  peculiarities  as  a  mineral  have  already  l)een  statoil,  based 
upon  its  examination  hy  Mr.  Wadsworth.     Now  it  happens  that 
just  as  the  occurrence  of  siufaee  (iiiartz  veins,  near  Little  Falls  in 
]Minnesota,  proved  the  first  available  locality  I'or  that  rock,  so  de- 
sirable for  making  implements,  as  the  ice-slieet  withdrew;   so,  in 
till!  Delaware  valley,  a  few  ndles  north  of 'I'renton,  argillit(>  occurs 
in  place  and  likewise  oll'ereil  the  lirsl  available  mineral  for  ellectiv(s 
imi)lements  otiier  than  pebl)les,  and  these  were  largely  covered  with  , 
water  and  not  so  readily  obtained,  as  at  present;  while  the  >\vy 
land  of  thatda}',  the  Columbia  gravel,  contained  almost  exclusively, 
in  this  region,  small  (juartzitc  pebbles  an  inch  or  two  in  hMiglh. 
If  the  pahoolithie  iin|ih'nu'nts  were  strictly  conlineil  to  the  gravel 
deposits,  like  fossils  in  tlie  underlying  marl-beds,  then,  as  it  seems 
to  me,  the  Eskimo  theory  woidd  fall.  ;ind   we  eouhl  only  conclude 
with  Dawkins  that  "  we  cannot  refer  them  ((.  e.,  the  pahuolithic 
folk)  to  any  branch  of  the  human  race  now  nil  ve;"  but,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  there  is  nosuchhreak —  no  evidence  of  an  hiatus  of  greater 
or  less  duration  between  i)alaM)lithic  man  and  the  Indian.     The 
former  continued  to  dwell   here  until  the  last  pebble  of  the  great 
gravel  deposit  had  been  laid  down,  and  possibly  into  the  soil-mak- 
ing i)eriod,  but  not  now,  as  paheolithic  man.     Whether  the  change 
wrought  by  the  alteration  of  climate,  and  itsinthience  on  the  fauna 
and  llora,  had  to  do  with  it,  or  through  other  inlluences  it  was  ef- 
fected, none  can  tell,  but  the  signilicant  advance  to  the  manufact- 
ure of  more  specialized  implements  took  place ;  the  rude  argillite 
pala'olith,  the  same  in   form   the  \\orld  over,  giving  way  to  S[)ears 
anil  other  dclinite  forms.     The  form  of  the  i)roduct  altered,  but 
the  same  material,  aigillite,  continueil  in  use.     There  was  no  pot- 


[ 


22 


SECTION    H. 


teiy,  no  polislied  stone,  little  if  any  attempt  at  ornamentation  ; 
still,  when  wecompare  these  later  olyccts  of  argillite  with  the  earlier 
unil  original  patterns,  we  see  what  a  tremendous  forward  stride 
had  been  made.  Had  it  aught  to  do  with  the  acquirement  of  power 
of  speech?  as  argued  by  Mr.  Hale,  that  the  "  speaiung  man  "  is  a 
descendant  of  the  "  speechless  man  "  of  the  River  drift.  But  great 
as  the  change  is,  it  is  insignificant  when  com[)ared  with  the  handi- 
work of  the  Indian  —  of  his  handiwork  prior  to  any  European 
contact. 

Oil  what  grounds  can  this  dissociation  be  l)ased  ?  Does  mere 
rudeness  in  the  fashioning  indicate  a  dilforencc  of  origin?  Why 
may  not  the  spearpoints  of  argillite  be  the  work  of  Indians  as  well 
us  similar  objects  made  of  jasper?  These  are  <juestions  invariably 
asked,  and  however  satisfactor}'  the  rc|)lies  have  been  to  myself, 
they  have  not  proved  so,  in  all  cases,  to  others. 

The  fact  that  these  rude  spearpoints  occur  upon  the  surface  of 
the  ground  is  with  many  an  insu[)orablc  ol)jection  to  any  claim  to 
significant  antiquity  ;  these  objectors  forgetting  the  while  that  tliere 
has  been  habitable  surface  soil  in  this  region  —  New  Jersey  —  for 
a  much  longer  period,  than  man's  first  appearance  on  earth  ;  even 
in  the  Garden  of  Eden. 

Let  us  consider  the  two  questions  to  which  I  have  referred. 

Does  mere  rudeness  in  the  fashioning  indicate  a  difference  of 
origin?  Of  itself,  certainly  not.  There  are  Indians  who  still  make, 
or  did  ver^'  recently,  implements  far  rudei'  than  the  least  finished 
pali«olith  ;  and  implements  of  essentially  palaiolithic  character  oc- 
cur wherever  ordinary  Indian  relics  are  found,  but  this  neither  im- 
plies that  the  Indian  was  a  paheolithic  man,  or  that  the  oldest  of 
these  objects,  found  in  gravel  deposits  was  the  handiwork  of  In- 
dians. So  long  as  this  confusion  exists,  so  long  will  American 
archaiology  be  an  unsolvable  problem.  Tho  telling  fact  with  ref- 
erence to  these  argillite  spearpoints  is  that  liicy  are  not,  in  the 
same  sense  as  jasper  arrowheads,  surface-found  implements.  They 
occur  also,  and  even  more  abundantly  beneath  the  surface-soil. 

The  celebrated  Swedish  naturalist,  reterKalm,  travelled  tin-ough- 
out  central  and  southern  New  Jersey  in  1748-'50,  and  in  his  de- 
scription of  the  country  remarks :  "We  find  great  woods  here,  but, 
when  the  trees  in  tliom  have  stoo<l  a  hundreti  and  fifty  or  a  hun- 
dred and  eighty  years,  they  arc  either  rotting  witliin,  or  losing 
their  crown,  or  their  wood  becomes  quite  soft,  or  their  roots  are  no 


ADDRESS    BY  CIIAKLES    C.  ABBOTT. 


23 


im- 

of 

In- 

iciui 
icf- 
the 

L'liey 

1. 

igh- 

(lO- 

but, 
liun- 
sing 
c  no 


longer  able  to  chaw  in  sudicient  noniisliment,  or  they  die  from  some 
otiier  cause.  Tiiorofore  wiien  storms  blow,  which  sometimes  imppens 
here,  the  trees  are  broken  oU'eitiier  just  above  the  roots  or  in  tlie  mid- 
dle or  at  the  sunnnit.  Several  trees  are  likewise  torn  out  with  their 
roots  by  the  power  of  the  winds.  ...  In  this  manner  tiie  old  trees 
die  away  continually,  and  are  succeeded  by  a  younger  generation. 
Those  which  are  thrown  down  lie  on  the  ground  and  putrefy,  sooner 
or  later,  and  by  that  means  increase  the  black  soil,  into  which  the 
leaves  are  likewise  finally  changed,  whicli  drop  abundantly  in  au- 
tumn, are  blown  about  by  the  winds  for  some  time,  but  are  heaped 
u[)  and  lie  on  both  sides  of  the  trees  which  are  fallen  down.  It  re- 
quires several  years  before  a  tree  is  entirely  reduced  to  dust." 

Tiiis  quotation  has  a  direct  bearing  on  that  which  follows.  It  is 
clear  that  the  surface-soil  was  forming  during  the  occupancy  of  the 
country  by  the  Indians.  The  entire  area  of  the  state  was  covered 
with  a  dense  forest,  which,  century  after  century,  was  increasing 
the  black  soil  to  which  Kalm  refers.  If,  now,  an  opportunity  olfers 
to  examine  a  section  of  virgin  soil  and  underlying  strata,  as  occa- 
sionally happens  on  the  liiull's  facing  tiie  river,  the  limit  in  depth 
of  this  black  soil  may  be  approximately  determined. 

An  average,  derived  from  several  such  sections,  leads  me  to  infer 
that  the  doi)lh  is  not  nmcii  over  one  foot,  and  tlie  pro|)ortiou  of 
vegetable  matter  increases  as  the  surface  is  api)roaclied.  Of  this 
depth  of  superficial  soil  probal)ly  not  over  one-haU'has  been  derived 
from  decomposition  of  vcgetui)le  growths.  While  no  [)ositive  data 
are  determinable  in  this  matter,  beyond  the  naked  fact  that  rotting 
trees  increase  the  bulk  of  top-soil,  one  archieological  fact  tiiat  we 
do  derive,  '.s  that  the/?/)//  implements  known  as  Indian  relics  l)clong 
to  this  superficial  or  "  black  soil,"  as  Kalm  terms  it.  Abundantly 
arc  they  found  on  the  surface ;  more  sparingly  are  tliey  found  near 
the  surface;  more  sparingly  still  the  deeper  we  go;  while  at  the 
base  of  this  deposit  of  soil,  the  anjillite  implements  occur  in  great- 
est abundance. 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  whole  matter  in  a  nut-shell.  The  two 
forms  were  dissociated  until  by  the  deforesting  of  the  country  and 
subsequent  cultivation  of  the  soil,  except  in  a  few  instances,  they 
became  commingled. 

Perhaps  the  most  iin|)ortant  discovery  bearing  upon  the  (luestion 
of  the  descendants  of  i)alieolithic  man  is  that  of  JMr.  Ililboin  T. 
Cresson  who  has  found,  in  the  alluvial  deposits  at  Naaman's  Creek, 


■s^ 


I^^SBHI 


24 


SECTION   n. 


in  Delaware,  traces  of  pile-strucliires,  upon  which  we  may  presiiine 
that  a  rude  fishing  people  had  erected  their  houses.  A  detailed 
description  of  th((se  remains  and  the  objects  t'oiind  will  i)e  <i;iveii 
in  due  time  in  the  pnl)licati()ns  of  tlic  I'eaitody  Museum,  hut  I  may 
lay  stress  upon  tlie  character  of  the  stone  implements  dredged  from 
the  mud  about  tlio  piling.  At  two  of  the  structures  or  "  stations," 
Mr.  Cresson  finds  only  argillite  implements,  many  as  rude  as  some 
of  palieolithic  types,  and  a  large  numl)er  of  those  long,  slender 
spearpoints  to  which  I  have  already  referred.  In  a  third  "  sta- 
tion," there  is  a  mixture  of  these  forms  with  others  of  quartz, 
jasper  and  otiier  silicious  mineral,  witli  traces  of  rude  pottery. 

These  discoveries  certainly  bear  out  the  suggestion  I  advanced  ' 
years  ago  of  an  intermediate  period  of  human  occupancy  of  our 
Atlantic  seaboard.  Here,  on  the  Delaware  river,  as  Lockwood 
found  in  the  shellheaps  of  Ke^'port,  New  Jersey,  and  tlie  surround- 
ing country,  occur  i)oth  jasper  and  argillite,  but  not  so  associated 
as  to  demonstrate  tiiat  i)oth  minerals  were  in  use  at  the  same  time, 
or  used  by  the  same  peoi)le  at  lUlferent  times.  On  tlie  contrary, 
the  conclusion  reached  by  every  competent  investigator  has  been 
that  implements  made  of  argillite  antedate  tiiose  of  jasper ;  and 
this  single  impression  of  many  unbiassed  students  goes  a  long 
way  towaril  proving  the  essentially  correct  character  of  tiiese  im- 
pressions. 

Negative  evidence  of  the  soundness  of  this  view  is  had  in  the 
character  of  the  sites  of  arrowmakers'  o[)en-air  workshops,  or  those 
spots  whereon  tlie  professional  chipper  of  tliut  pursued  his  calling. 

In  the  locality  where  1  h-ive  pursued  my  studies  several  siidi 
sites  have  been  discovered  and  carefully  examined.  In  no  one  of 
these  workshop  sites  has  there  been  found  any  trace  of  argillite 
mingled  with  the  flint-chips  that  form  the  characteristic  feature  of 
such  spots.  On  the  other  hand,  no  similar  sites  have  been  dis- 
covered, to  •  V  knowledge,  where  argillite  was  used  exclusively. 
The  absence,  of  this  mineral  cannot  be  explained  on  the  ground 
that  it  was  dillicult  to  prociu'e,  for  such  is  not  the  case.  It  con- 
stitutes, in  fact,  a  considerable  percentage  of  the  peldiles  and 
bowlders  of  tiie  drift,  from  whicli  tlie  Imlians  gatliered  tlieir  jasper 
and  quartz  pebliles  for  working  into  implements  and  weapons. 

If  the  absence  of  argillite  from  siudi  heaps  of  seleeted  stones  is 
explained  l»y  the  assertion  tliat  tlu;  Indians  had  recognized  tlie  su- 
periority of  jasper,  then  the  belief  that  argillite  was  usetl  prior  to 


AI)1>KKSS    I5Y  CHARLES    C.  ABBOTT. 


25 


U't 


llic 
lioso 

SlU'll 

\\v  ol' 

illilc 

o  of 

<lis- 

v.'ly. 

ouiul 

Ulil 

asper 

lies  is 
Tur  Sll- 
lioi  to 


Jasper  receives  tacit  assent.  If,  iiowever,  it  was  the  earlier  ladiann 
wiio  used  argillite,  and  <^radually  discarded  it  for  tlie  various  forms 
of  Hint,  tluMi  we  oui^lit  to  (ind  worlisiiop  sites  older  than  the  t.iin<' 
ofjllnt  ciiippinu;,  and  others  where  tlu;  two  minerals  are  associated. 
This,  as  has  lieen  stated,  lias  not  been  done.  Negative  evidence 
this,  it  is  admitted,  but  when  considered  in  addition  to  the  positive 
evidence  of  position  in  undisturbed  soil,  it  has  !i  value  that  must 
not,  be  oviMlo«)k<!d.  Snllicient  positivt;  evid(Mie(i  to  clear  away  all 
(hnihl  in  the  minds  of  many,  of  the  presence  of  an  earlier  people 
than  the  Inilian  on  tlie  Atlantic  seaboard  of  America  will  probably 
never  be  forliicomint>; ;  yet,  to  the  minds  of  candid  infpiirers,  there 
is  a  decree  of  probability  in  the  interpretation  of  known  facLs  that 
closely  lm<;s  the  bounds  of  certainty. 

This  brielly  covers  the  ran<ie  of  evidence,  lirst,  that  p.alaHilithic 
man  did  not  become  extinct ;  secondly,  that  his  descendants  at- 
tained to  an  advanced  degree  t)f  culture  in  tlie  laud  of  their  fore- 
fathers. What  then  was  this  people's  subsequent  career?  Were  it 
not  for  the  three;  skulls,  to  which  reference  has  i)een  made,  we 
could  still  maintain  that  we  have  their  descendants  in  the  Eskimo, 
and  that  tiiey  were  finally  driven  north,  after  contact  with  the  In- 
dians, who,  as  is  conceded  by  all  students,  migrated  hither,  at, 
.■ircha'ologically  c:onsidered,  a  not  exceedingly  remote  period.  The 
Indian  traditions  assert  that  they  found  the  region  occupied  ;  and 
for  once-,  at  least,  we  have  evidence  which  confu'ms  tradition. 

However  others  may  be  impressed  by  what  1  have  now  presented, 
for  myself,  as  I  wander  along  the  pleasant  shores  of  the  Delaware; 
river,  seeing  it  but  a  meagre  stream  between  higli  banks,  in  mid- 
sunnner ;  or,  in  winter,  swollen  and  choked  with  ice,  until  these 
M\'.  almost  hidden,  1  recall  what  time  this  same  stream  was  the 
mighty  channel  of  glacial  Hoods  pouring  seaward  from  the  moun- 
tains beyond  and  picture  the  primitive  hunter  of  that  ancient  time, 
armed  with  but  a  sharpened  stone,  in  quest  of  uuwaiy  game.  And 
la:er,  when  the  Hoods  hail  abated  and  the  waters  tilled  but  the  chan- 
lu  1  of  to-day,  I  recall  that  more  skilful  folk  who  with  spear  and 
knife  captured  whatsoever  creature  their  needs  demanded,  —  the 
earlier  and  later  Chippers  of  Argillite. 

These  pass ;  and  the  Indian  with  his  jasper,  (piartz,  copper  and 
polished  stone  looms  up,  as  the  others  fade  away,  llis  history, 
reaching  forward  almost  to  the  present,  I  leave  in  the  hands  of 
others  to  record. 


